Creating a bouquet for Mom with garden choices she’ll love
Garden centers and Mother’s Day go hand in hand. We would take my mother to the garden center to pick out plants. The result is not only a gift, but a memory created.
Here are a few other ideas:
• Make or buy a dried wreath; it lasts longer than a cut flower arrangement, and you can hang it.
• Consider a microgreens kit if Mom is a green smoothie fan. Use one variety of seed, not a mix, so that all seedlings grow evenly. Choose broccoli, lettuce, spinach, cilantro and radish to start.
• Purchase a new decorative pot, with drainage holes, and repot her houseplant with fresh potting medium.
• Spiffy up Mom’s garden tools: sharpen, oil and tighten. Don’t forget the pruners.
• Mulch garden beds with 3 to 4 inches of mulch. Do this for her any time of year.
• Find her a hose wand. A fancy one.
• Plant a flower that will attract hummingbirds to the yard: Turk’s cap (Malvaviscus arboreus), firebush (Hamelia patens), bottlebrush, Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), or pink skullcap (Scutellaria suffrutescens).
• Sign Mom up for one of the many gardening workshops and lessons around town.
Harris County Master Gardeners spring plant sale
If you haven’t visited the Master Gardeners demonstration gardens, “Genoa Friendship Gardens,” consider making an online purchase during their last spring plant sale of the season. Pickup will be located on-site. Not only will you get your order, you will have the opportunity to walk the gardens and talk to these incredible county volunteers.
Did you know, even in a pandemic era, our Harris County Master Gardeners served over 12,000 hours in 2021? This equates to over $350,000 in time and service given back to the community. They demonstrate, educate, garden and sell plants best suited to our area.
Vegetable questions? They can help. Strawberries, radish, turnips and chard were harvested in April — 31 pounds! This brings the year-to-date harvest for the garden to 133 pounds.
Butterfly garden questions? Butterflies and caterpillars abound, with nectar plants for the former and host plants for the latter. May brings pipevine swallowtail caterpillars to the ground cover Aristolochia fimbriata (white veined pipevine) and the intimidating, but harmless Gulf fritillary caterpillar as it munches away on purple passionflower vine.
Fruit tree questions? Stroll the orchard and check out the 12 new specimens that have been planted to replace those lost during last year’s winter freeze.
The recent showstoppers are the colorful trial beds. With help of Master Gardeners, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension conducts cool- and warm-season annual/perennial trials as well as vegetable trials. Volunteers plant, care for (but not too much) and assess performance in our climate.
Perennials, herbs, a limited number of fruit trees, compost and fertilizer are available online during this last sale. Visit hcmga.tamu.edu/shop to order — while supplies last. Pickup will be May 14 at Genoa Friendship Gardens, 1202 Genoa Red Bluff. If you are not ordering online, you are still welcome to shop in person or check out this hidden gem of a garden. It is only open and accessible when volunteers are there, which is Monday and Wednesday mornings before noon.
The “last chance” sale date is May 16. Not only are plants still for sale, but this coincides with the organization’s monthly Open Garden Day (the third Monday morning of every month), where they welcome the public to the gardens March through October.
All plant sales support Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service’s mission of providing research-based gardening education to the community.
Let’s talk vitex
Last week, we were asked if Vitex agnus-castus is safe to plant. The answer is yes, for the Harris County area. While nonnative, vitex is not listed on any state or national invasive species lists. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has deemed it safe for ornamental use, although it may exhibit weedy behavior in limestone outcrops and dry creek beds throughout Central Texas.